Dare I say I’ve now seen (or rather, heard!) everything? 

Likely not, but what you’ll see in this video would definitely rank high on my list of strange things people do with food. 

No two ways about it – the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra is a novel and inventive way to use vegetables. The orchestra consists of 11 musicians who fashion musical instruments like carrot flutes, leek violins, cucumberphones and celery bongos by dicing, slicing, carving and drilling veggies. You can find information and, yes, the orchestra’s performance schedule (I kid you not!!), on the group’s website.

I’m curious how the idea for this produce project came about. Who imagined trying to make music with vegetables was a possibility?  Someone whose disliked finding carrots on the dinner menu so intensely it lead to searching for an alternate use for them? Someone who thought eggplants hadn’t reached their full potential? Someone with an overabundance of zucchini, lettuce, pumpkin, and sweet peppers in their garden? A bunch of people with too much time on their hands???

I’m also curious how long each instrument lasts before it dries up or wears out. From the video it appears some of the produce take quite a beating during each performance. 

Believe it or not, the Vegetable Orchestra gives concerts and appropriately serves vegetable soup to concert-goers following each performance. And yes, they have produced a CD.

Take a look – and a listen – to the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra! (Be warned – about halfway through the video, you may be tempted to reach for the fly swatter.)